After a few days of network dropouts, and one day of working at Joseph Beth to get more reliable network, I finally decided to call Time Warner to ask them to fix their network.

The short form is, as I'm sure you already guessed, is that they declined to do so, rather choosing to blame it on me. They suggested I had stuff connected incorrectly, that my wireless router was the problem, and so on. And of course, several iterations of "turn it off and on again."

While I totally understand that tech suppose has to assume that the person calling doesn't know anything, there aught to come a point in these conversations when they are authorized to go off-script and recognize that I might know something about home networking. I'm not a CCNA, but I've been running a home network for close to 20 years, and I know to turn it off and on again, several times, before I subject myself to the pain of calling customer disservice.

So, the final result was that the entire phone call boiled down to them assuming that I have something wrong on my end, and they're not going to fix anything.

The network dropouts continue today, although it's better. I've only lost my VPN 3 times today, as compared to 20 or 30 times on Tuesday. So maybe they actually fixed something and just chose to tell me that they think it's my problem.

I wonder if there's some legal reason (i.e., not wanting to get sued) that causes them to not accept responsibility for anything.

RDO just had our second Google Hangout On Air event, and it went much more smoothly the second time around, now that we have some idea of what you're doing. I wanted to share a few things while it's still fresh in my mind. Because of the way Google Hangouts work, there are several things that are not exactly intuitive, and you need to plan ahead for best results.

I don't have any illusion that I'm an expert, but hopefully these tips will help you be successful if you do your own hangout. I would appreciate your feedback and additional tips.

Hangouts have a 10 attendee limit. We found that out the hard way the first time. So your audience doesn't actually join the hangout. Instead, they watch a live stream on Youtube, where there's no limit. Don't invite people to the hangout unless they are actually going to be talking.

Camera switches on voice - that is, the person talking gets the camera. So if you're not presenting, mute your microphone so that it doesn't suddenly switch to a shot of you cleaning your ears when you happen to rustle a paper. Better yet, turn off your camera, too, when you're not presenting.

Test Ahead of Time------------------------

Presenting in a Google Hangout requires plugins, and the controls aren't immediately obvious. Create a test On Air event and have the presenter join and share their slides. It can be weird talking to your screen for an hour without seeing the audience, and it can be doubly flustering if things don't work quite how you thought they would. Give them the option of doing a full runthrough if they really want to, but at a minumum ensure that they can join the test hangout and get their slides shared, and that their microphone works well, there isn't a terrible echo in the room they're in, and so on.

Timezones Suck---------------------

Timezones suck. Use TimeAndDate.com to create a page that shows everyone the time in their own timezone, for example http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20131031T1600

Youtube Stream URL---------------------------

The event that you've created in Google Plus, and the actual "On Air" event, are not connected to one another in any way. You need to create an event, and then put the URL of the On Air event in the description. Unfortunately, you can't schedule the On Air event ahead of time. So you create the On Air event (ie, Youtube stream) and then edit the description 20-30 minutes before you're scheduled to start.

Start the On Air event well in advance and share a window (LibreOffice Present?) with details about the hangout and when it will start. You can edit that bit off when you're done, so that it's not in the final video.

What I'm going to do next time is have placeholder page for the weeks leading up to the event. Then, the day of the event, create the On Air event and redirect that URL to the event. Of course, to do that, you'll need to have a server where you can redirect URLs, or a URL shortener that you can update, or something like that. Failing that, just update the Google Event when you have the Youtube URL, or perhaps publicize a blog post or forum post which you then update with that URL.

Q & A--------

Although the Hangout has a Q&A tool, that's only for people that are in the hangout. I'm still looking for a good Q&A tool, but for now we're using IRC. I recommend that you create a new IRC channel, rather than using your existing one. This removes the off-topic chatter, and makes it easier to have a transcript and an attendee list.

For the many people who are not comfortable with IRC, give them a web link, like https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=rdohangout which takes them directly to the web chat applet.

Editing Video-----------------

Once the event is over, Youtube has a simple edit tool that will let you trim off the 30 minutes of dead air at the beginning of the recording. This takes a LONG time, so make sure it's done before you start publicizing the URL of the video.

Anything Else?-------------------

If you have any other tips, please share them with me. I want the third one to be even better than the second.

Although much of yesterday at LinuxCon was spent in a jet-lagged fog, it was a great first day. I arrived at the Edinburgh airport at 8 in the morning (I know, I should have come a day or two early!) and took the bus to downtown, then walked up to the conference venue. It's a lovely conference center located a short walk from numerous lovely pubs, bakeries, and shops.

I spent most of the day at the OpenStack booth, talking with people about what OpenStack is, as well as with people who have been using it for a long time and had deeper questions, or wanted to share what they're doing with it.

In the evening, I met up with several colleagues - one of whom I had talked with online but never met - for dinner and discussion. I'm frequently impressed by my coworkers and their passion to solve problems, rather than simply jockeying for position and prowess. These guys really want to identify and squash bugs, both technical and relational. I love it.

After a very long day (I was up for nearly 40 hours, I think - time zones confuse me) I finally crashed around 9pm and got 11 hours of sleep. I feel much more human today and am really looking forward to the day. I have a few interviews I have tentatively scheduled for today and tomorrow to record for the RDO blog. Hopefully I can track these folks down.

Wishing that Facebook had filters by topic, so that I could avoid the relentless misinformation around the Affordable Care Act.

It's truly perplexing to me that folks feel the need to invent things about the bill in order to oppose it. If your reason for opposing the bill is "I don't trust the President", then say that. But please, please, please, if you're going to attempt to make claims about the bill, then read this first: http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/10/01/15-myths-the-media-should-ignore-during-obamaca/196181 ... And then don't make any of the claims that are debunked there.

Find something that you actually oppose in the bill, and talk about that. Better yet, talk about your frustration with the BILLIONS of dollars that the medical and insurance lobbying organizations are pouring into the effort to keep you misinformed, and your frustration with the people in Congress and in the media who are *actively* reinforcing the lies about death panels and other such nonsense, so that you will oppose a bill you've never read, and which apparently they haven't either. Or read one of the sites that explains what the bill says, like http://obamacarefacts.com/whatis-obamacare.php Yes, you could claim that that site is going to lie to you, but we know for a fact that the media is lying to you about it.

And if you still oppose the bill, GREAT, oppose it. But oppose the bill, not a mythical straw-man constructed out of half-lies and blatant lies. It just doesn't make sense, when so much information is so freely available.

This requires just a little explanation. This is about the awkward situation that arises when you encounter someone from a past, and, in this case, very unpleasant, chapter in your life, and the difficulty of making small talk. Everything serves to remind you of something from that time. Which got me to thinking - what if I were to encounter a dreadful historic figure at Kroger. Hitler? Too obvious. I know ...

Mussolini On the Produce Aisle

I saw Benito- he's going by Beni now,sort of a break from the past -waiting for his swiss

You don't mentiondeath camps in the deli,it just isn't done.

So I made small talk,asked if he had beenhanging around Milan lately.Realized, apologized for the faux pas,made my excuses,went to find the rigatoni.

Saw him againlooked at the zucchini,trying to decideorganicor non-organic.

I got another Raspberry Pi, for the express purpose of luring Z into being a bit more inquisitive about computer things - perhaps learn some programming. He's primarily a consumer when it comes to computers - games, videos, and so on - but he's *so* creative, it seems like he'd be a great hacker, given the right incentives.

I tried to make sure that it was instant success, but of course we ran into some hurdles. The install went smoothly, but it turns out that I don't actually have any wired mice any more, and the wireless ones just didn't work. So, over to see Jenn and borrow a mouse. Thanks Jenn.

We did the initial setup using the TV, because when I had tinkered a little before he came home, I wasn't able to get the HDMI output working immediately. After we got the OS installed, we unplugged everything and took it up to where the ancient Windows machine is, and plugged it into that monitor. Monitor worked immediately, but for some reason there were errors in the boot sequence, saying that USB wasn't loading.

We were out of time by then, and Z headed to bed, but I brought it downstairs and plugged it back into the TV, and everything booted fine.

So, tomorrow, we try again. Not sure what was going on, but I think we're pretty close.

Next steps - after successful boot - is to see what video editing stuff we can get running on there, since putting stuff on YouTube is Z's latest passion. We're trying to steer him towards content creation rather than content consumption, so video editing is a very good thing for him to get into.

Also of interest is Scratch, which comes with the Pi, and is an environment for learning to program. Apparently some of his friends are already using it, so perhaps that's a good place to start.

And I've been thinking about this quite a bit since then. What would I have done in that situation?

There's several options available to you. You can simply leave. You can be quiet about it, or be loud about it. You can stand up and speak about about it. You can ask the representatives of the conference in the room to step in and throw the bum off the stage.

Or, of course, you can do nothing, which is what most of us do most of the time.

Speaking out is hard. It's uncomfortable. It's deeply awkward. You'll look like an idiot. People will resent you. You'll have nasty things said about you online. It's much easier to sink back into your chair and let it happen - perhaps even participate in the nervous laughter around you.

But it only takes one person to stand up and say, no, this isn't on. This isn't how we do things in our community. You are on the outside, and you won't be allowed to paint us all with your brush.

Several years ago, I was attending a conference. As it happens, it's one of my favorite conferences. I've spoken there numerous times, and a lot of my friends attend. This particular time, my wife was attending with me.

We stepped into an elevator and another conference attendee was in the elevator wearing a tshirt depicting a woman pole dancing, with the text "I support single mothers".

I didn't say anything.

I think about that frequently. Why didn't I say anything? I'm a respected member of the community. My words carry weight there. I could have made a point that he was making people uncomfortable. That he was being disrespectful to the women in the community. That, since he was on the way up to his room, perhaps this was a good time to change his shirt. I could have used my privilege as a man, as a community elder, as a speaker at the conference, to right a small wrong.

But I didn't. And so I was complicit in the women that were made uncomfortable, or didn't come to the conference next year, because this guy thought his little joke was more important than someone's dignity.

He was the middle schooler, and I was the grownup in that situation. When my son misbehaves in public, it is my job to correct him and make sure it doesn't happen again. This is not to say that he's not responsible for his actions - he is - but I'm responsible for my response. The young man in the elevator was responsible for his tshirt. He chose to put it on. I presume he thought it was funny. It was my job to educate him, and I missed the opportunity.

And so we come back to you, and how you respond to indignities and injustices that happen around you. Did anyone in the audience stand up and protest? I don't hear them on the video. Was anyone even uncomfortable? Did anyone think that it was a problem?

If you're one of the elder statesmen who, like me, attend a lot of these events, and have a loud voice in the community, you have an obligation to stand up to this kind of thing, rather than sink into your seat and cringe. Stand up. Say for the whole room to hear, we don't do that kind of thing here. Risk being uncomfortable. Risk feeling awkward. Risk people being angry with you, or not understanding why you thought it was important to spoil a "harmless prank" or "just a bit of fun." Because it's not fun to the people who are being othered by this kind of behavior. And, in the long run (and the not-so-long), it is harmful to the future of our industry when we make it clear that women aren't welcome.